Circuit Rider

March 2021

Fairmont United Methodist Church 119 E. 2nd St. Fairmont, MN 56031

www.umcfairmont.org. 507-235-5579

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MONDAY, March 22 (noon) is the DEADLINE for the next Circuit Rider. I am switching to Mondays for the deadline due to the office being closed on Tuesdays.

In This Issue Page: 2 Small Group Gatherings for March 2 +New Circuit Rider Deadline 3 Pastor Eli’s News 4 Women’s Circles News 4 Lent 2021 4 BAM News 5 Church Mouse Story 6 Prayers & Concerns 6 March Birthdays/Ushers/Acolytes 7 March Calendar

Small Group Gatherings for March

March 2 6:30pm. Pastor’s Bible Club—Room #121 March 3 6:30pm. Confirmation/Lent Service—Sanctuary (limit of 35) March 7 9:00am. Worship—Zoom & in person 10:10am. Together in Faith #112 10:15am. Communion—Drive Up 10:30am. Women’s Bible Study-Zoom March 9 6:30pm. Pastor’s Book Club—Room #121 March 10 6:30pm. Confirmation/Lent Service—Sanctuary (limit of 35) March 14 9:00am. Worship—Zoom & in person 10:10am. Together in Faith #112 10:30am. Women’s Bible Study-Zoom March 16 6:30pm. Pastor Book Club—#121 March 17 6:30pm. Confirmation/Lent Service—Sanctuary (limit of 35) March 21 9:00am. Worship—Zoom & in person 10:10am. Together in Faith #112 10:30am. Women’s Bible Study-Zoom March 23 6:30pm. Pastor’s Book Club—#121 March 24 6:30pm. Lenten Service-Sanctuary (limit of 35) 6:30pm. Confirmation March 28 9:00am. Worship—Zoom & in person 10:10am. Together in Faith #112 10:30am. Women’s Bible Study-Zoom March 28-April 3—Holy Week

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Note From Pastor Eli

Hello Everyone, I hope you are all staying

warm and are excited for our Lenten

Season!!

The early Christians observed with great

devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and

resurrection, and it became the custom of the

Church that, before the Easter celebration,

there should be a forty-day season of spiritual preparation.

In this, the whole congregation was reminded of the mercy and forgiveness

proclaimed by the gospel of Jesus Christ and the need we all have to renew our faith.

This season, from 2/17/21 - 4/4/21, I invite you all to take a deep dive with us into the

story of Easter, which we will cover on Wednesday nights @ 6:30, and the Life of

Jesus, through the teaching of his beatitudes on Sundays @ 9am.

This will be a wonderful season in which we will re-center our hearts and minds to the

work of Jesus, then and now, and can reinvigorate our walk with him as we continue

on into a new year.

I hope to “see” you all, either in-person or online, this Lent for our journey closer to the

heart of God.

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Keep Bringing in those Receipts!! Hy-Vee total $ 40,301 Round 22 Fareway total—$131,609 Round 9 We are now on Round 22 at Hy-Vee!! Please keep bringing your receipts to the church. Thank you.

Martha Circle– March 18 at 9:30am. in #121 Rachel Circle - March 18 at 9:30am. in #112 Naomi Circle—the next meeting will depend on COVID-19 restrictions.

BAM for March 2021

Jeffrey L. Staley wrote this remarkably true story, GUM MOON, about San Francisco's Chinatown and is based on events in the life of his wife's grandmother, Chun, who is the basis for most of the plot. She is a lovable, resilient and talented character. Women and children were rescued by Salvation Army in 1886, whose women officers worked with the Methodists in identifying and rescuing them.

Gum Moon Women's Residence is still a project of the Methodist Church and provides transitional housing and support services for female survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking. You'll fall in love with many of the characters in their struggles for freedom.

A tentative date for BAM to meet is Thursday, March 25th, in Room 121, 9:00 -11:00am. Hope to see you then.

Ivy Mortensen

FUMC Lent 2021 This year we will be going through J. Ellsworth Kalas’ book Easter from the Backside. Books can be purchased at Cokesbury.com

Each Wednesday, from February 17-March 31, we will meet in the Sanctuary at FUMC for our Lenten Service. Come ready to get a fresh perspective on Easter and to grow with your church family!!!

Please feel free to join us without making a reservation. Our capacity for Lenten services will be 35 individuals.

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Church Mouse News

Hello everyone. What a terrible chatter across the electronic air waves and even among people going out and about. Some are afraid to even talk for fear of being condemned one way or the other. Alex said that not even in “Mousedom” do they put up a gallows in front of our wee little capital. God help us all. The Daryl Bebernes funeral was sad in many ways, but humbling and very uplifting is so many other ways. He exemplified the beatitudes of Christ. But I should have told my story about Daryl and his wife taking a night class from MSU on “round dancing” which my husband and I also took. We all had fun with the Salsa and Rumba. I also appreciated the flowers from his funeral at the altar on the following Sunday. As I was looking at them and Pastor Eli was dedicating the offering, I remembered a lead pastor on one of my webinars from Nashville tell us that the church is NOT IN THE HEATING & COOLING BUSINESS. It is also not in the building maintenance business. We ARE in the GOD Business. Dollars entrusted to the church are to be used for only one purpose and that is to fulfill the mission God has for our congregation. Often times we imply we want people to do something FOR the church. The discussion indicated that God is interested in how we use all of our monies. Discipleship Ministries (of all kinds) is for all of us to act on. Another thought: Bill Gates is all out working to find solutions to how we live with the climate changes. I sure hope he teams up with our ‘United Methodist Just Energy For All’ researchers and boards also. The name of his book is “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.” As I write this it is -19O and -10 in Texas. Listening to the weather channel, they are talking about zero degrees in Houston and other towns. The world seems to be “a chang’n.” Thank you to all who are knitting prayer shawls. Several shawls have been delivered. All of you in Circuit Rider land please call me at (507-236-8750) if someone is in need of one. They do not have to be from our congregation. Alex was amazed at how wonderful they were and that I had a cupboard to put them in. Good heavens, Alex must have slipped into my purse on the night we practiced for the Sunday service. Then he slipped back into the sanctuary on the 14th probably while we were singing. He caught my ear as we were putting on our coats and said that he enjoyed the “tid-bits” that fell to the floor when we sliced bread or others goodies at our house. He appreciated the warmth on the coldest of days. It was also mentioned that the week before, when they were preparing the POP-UP meal, Alex found enough crumbs to store away for him and Itsy too. Alex wondered why I was on that ‘zoom’ meeting two days in a row. I explained that the church is doing its part to train members via discussions about social justice with each other. Another big important one is social justice with regard to Climate Change. “Yes I saw that”, Alex replied to me. “People were typing questions and comments on the side of your computer screen and then there were all these post-it notes showing up on what they called a “Jamboard.” Yep, that is what happened, and Kate still doesn’t know all the ins and outs of this web thing called ‘zoom’ and the use of “Jamboard.” The webinars do produce some fantastic discussions from Methodists all over the country. On one of my sessions we talked about giving adults and children all types of cuddly animals and how that small gesture can release tensions and also get people to share feelings. Another discussion at almost every session was how to get congregants in our local churches to invest in lap tops, ipads and computers to keep up with everyone and their family or even classmates. It is believed that we will be utilizing this form of bible study and learning for years into the future.

Have a happy 1st of March, it’s national peanut butter day and read an E-book week. God Bless

Lord I love to sing , yet I think I need to be humble for Itsy to LOVE ME

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Honoring those who have joined or will be joining the “Club 80”

& up in March

7 Barb Clark 8 Millie Duflo 8 Charlie Roatch 21 Vangie Barber 21 Jan Oberg 30 Jim Duflo

Prayers of Concern: Keith Billett (continuing health concerns) Jim Wilson (hip surgery). Prayers of Joy: Congratulations to the Haugen family on the Baptism of Maverick Haugen. He is the son of Josh & Hannah Haugen, great-grandson of Chuck & Peg Haugen. Our sympathies and prayers to: the family of Daryl Bebernes who passed away on February 5, 2021. He was the father of Dan (Fran) Bebernes; grandfather of Ann (Ivan) Marte, Janet (Dan) Sahlstrom, Cheryl Bebernes, Nancy Bebernes and Adam Bebernes

Our children and youth birthdays for the month

of March

3 Brayden Pooley 11 yrs. 8 Savannah Hein 8 yrs. 9 Lilly Roeschen 11 yrs. 12 Laura Thompson 17 yrs. 16 Desmond Somers 1 yrs. 26 Logyn Luhmann 8 yrs. 28 Cavan Carlson 4 yrs.

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Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

1 9am Exercise 12:30pm Yoga

2 9am Exercise 1pm Quilters 5:15pm Yoga 6pm Cub Scouts 6:30pm Pastor’s Book Club #121

3 9am Exercise 12:30pm Yoga 6:30pm Trustees? 6:30pm Lent Ser-vice—Confirmation-Sanctuary

4 9am TOPS #117 12pm AL-NON 5:15pm Yoga

5 9am Exercise Gr 12:30pm Yoga 2pm UMC Worship

on Channel 12

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7 10:10am Communion-Drive up 8:30am Zoom F’ship 9am Worship 10am Zoom F’ship 10:10am Together In Faith #112 10:30am Women’s Bible Study-Zoom

8 9am Exercise Gr 12:30 Yoga

9 9am Exercise Gr 1pm Quilters 5:15pm Yoga 6pm Cub Scouts 6:30pm Pastor’s Book Club #121

10

9am Exercise Gr 12:30pm Yoga 6:30pm Lent ser-vice/Confirmation-Sanctuary

11 9am TOPS #117 12pm AL-ANON 5:15pm Yoga

12 9am Exercise Gr 12:30pm Yoga 2pm UMC Worship

on Channel 12

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14 8:30am Zoom F’ship 9am Worship 10am Zoom F’ship 10:10am. Together In Faith #112 10:30am Women’s Bible Study-Zoom

15 9am Exercise Gr 12:30pm Yoga

16 9am Exercise 1pm Quilters 5:15pm Yoga 7pm Cub Scouts 6:30 pm Pastor’s Book Club #121

17 9am Exercise Gr 12:30pm Yoga 6:30pm Lent Ser/ Confirmation in Sanctuary

18 9am TOPS #117 9:30am Rachael Cir 9:30am Martha Cir 12pm AL-ANON 5:15pm Yoga

19 9am Exercise Gr 12:30pm Yoga 2pm UMC Worship

on Channel 12

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21 8:30am Zoom F’ship 9am Worship 10am Zoom F’ship 10:10am Together In Faith #112 10:30am Women’s Bible Study-Zoom

22 9am Exercise Gr 12:30pm Yoga

23 9am Exercise Gr 1pm Quilters 5:15pm Yoga 7pm Cub Scouts 6:30pm Pastor’s Book Club #121 Circuit Rider Dead-

24 9am Exercise Gr 12:30pm Yoga 6:30pm Lent Ser/ Confirmation in Sanctuary

25 9:am TOPS #117 9:am BAM #121 12:00pm AL-ANON 5:15pm Yoga

26 9am. Exercise 12:30pm Yoga 2pm. UMC Worship On Channel 12

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This calendar was updated on 2/17/21. Refer to our website www.umcfairmont.org for additional information.

28 Palm Sunday 8:30 am Zoom F’ship 9am Worship 10am Zoom F’ship 10:10am Together in Faith #112 10:30am Women’s Bible Study-Zoom

29 9am. Exercise 12:30pm Yoga

30 9am. Exercise 1pm Quilters 5:15pm Yoga 6:30pm. Pastor’s Book Club #112

31 9am Exercise 12:30pm Yoga

H O L Y W E E K

UNITED METHODIST CHURCH NON PROFIT ORG. 119 E 2ND STREET U.S. POSTAGE PAID FAIRMONT, MN 56031-2891 PERMIT NO. 148 Return Service Requested FAIRMONT, MN 56031

Fall/Winter Worship Schedule

9:00 a.m. Sunday Worship-Zoom & in person (limited) Hospitality Coffee 8:30 & 10:00 a.m.–Zoom

Office Hours during the Orange Phase

Monday-Wednesday-Friday 8:00am—1:00pm.

Phone: 507-235-5579

Pastor Eli Somers 214-463-0060

Web address: umcfairmont.org

Emails: Pastor: pastor.elisomers@gmail.com Office: umcfmtconnie@gmail.com Treasurer: Renee: umcfmtfinance@gmail.com Pastor Eli Somers Office Manager Connie Lowry Treasurer Renee Poppe Custodian Russ Higgins

March Dates to Remember

March 3 6:30pm. Lenten Service is Sanctuary March 7 10:00am Communion-Drive-up March 10 6:30pm. Lenten Service in Sanctuary March 17 6:30pm. Lenten Service in Sanctuary St. Patrick’s Day March 24 6:30pm. Lenten Service in Sanctuary March 28-April 3 Holy Week